EmployeeScreenIQ Blog

Check out our latest article which helps HR professionals learn the value of screening their contingent workforce.

“Screening Your Contingent Workforce: What HR Professionals Should Know” is an eye-opening white paper from EmployeeScreenIQ. It examines the dangers of hiring contract workers without performing the same background checks as on permanent employees. Once small in number, contract employees have gained a significant presence among companies nationwide; HR executives who take a hands-off managing approach are setting their company up for big risks.

The NEW paper also addresses the following topics:

• Proper background screening methods for contingent staff
• How to avoid staffing agency discrimination
• HR’s need to reclaim ownership from procurement
• A handy checklist of “do’s and don’ts” for screening contract workers

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TLNT’s John Hollon called me a couple weeks ago for my thoughts on an article published in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune that suggested a recent surge in employment drug testing could be a positive sign for employment growth. He wanted to know if I thought this was in fact an accurate indicator and if we were experiencing the same thing with employment background checks.  Check out his article below.

I’m always fascinated when people come up with innovative (some might say odd) indicators of a change in economic activity.

I can almost hear many of you out there — saying “Huh? What the hell is he talking about?” — but hang on for a moment and I’ll explain.

What I’m talking about, and what catches my eye, are simple, mundane activities that someone else takes a look at and says, “hey, this indicates future job growth and a positive economic change.”

Still don’t know what I’m talking about? Well, it’s got to do with the drug testing you make your serious job candidates go through. Who knew that now it wasn’t just a drug test but some huge barometer of job growth and an upswing in the economy?

Take a look at what I am talking about, from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

Searching for signs of an improving economy, analysts have scratched their heads over statistics and surveyed the hearts of consumers. Now comes another hopeful indicator — the bladders of potential hires.

Pre-employment drug tests are rising significantly. Drug test companies in the Minneapolis area say numbers of such exams for new hires have doubled, or in one case, increased more than 500 percent, in the last year.

Some experts believe this could mean more companies in the Twin Cities area are hiring workers, at least temporarily. ”I think it’s a good sign,” Scott Anderson, a senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities, said this week. “Certainly the direction is what we would like to see at this stage of recovery.”

So far, the theory seems to be holding true. Although the state’s unemployment remained flat at 6.8 percent, the private sector gained nearly 19,000 jobs in July — the most since April 2005.

And lest you think this is just some economic quirk that’s happening in the Twin Cities, the newspaper goes on to say that, “The trend is not just limited to Minnesota. The Drug and Alcohol Testing Industry Association said its members have noted improvements in the numbers of pre-employment drug test screenings.”

Plus, it seems that drug tests are a sign of job growth, at least in Minnesota, because state law “drug tests cannot be requested of an applicant until a contingent job offer is given, said Marshall Tanick, a Twin Cities employment lawyer.”

I asked Nick Fishman, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for EmployeeScreenIQ (and a guy who knows a lot about pre-employment testing) what he thought of this new barometer of job growth.

His response? “I don’t know how much you should really read into this,” he said. We’ve been screening a lot of candidates, but unemployment is where unemployment is…maybe it’s just a sign that we’re all using a lot more screening tools than we ever have before.”

Nick added that there does seem to be a big increase right now in people being hired for contract positions (instead of as regular employees), and perhaps that might be a contributing factor for the rise in pre-employment drug tests.

So after all of that said, is this a barometer of the economy and new job growth, or, just a sign of times that we shouldn’t read too much into?

Myself, I hope for the former but I’m also resigned to the fact that it is probably the latter. As much as I wish that pre-employment drug tests were some new and exciting way to forecast economic trends, I have to side with Minnesota state economist Tom Stinson who told the Star-Tribune, ”While it may be indicating a little strengthening of the economy, I don’t think it’s a real solid indicator.”

Yes, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, as Sigmund Freud so famously noted, and sometimes, a drug test is just a drug test, too.

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I saw this on our local NBC news affiliate last night.  It appears that applicants for open positions at Starbucks at Cleveland Hopkins Airport were having their identities stolen.  Candidates were submitting their job applications which included their Social Security Numbers.  An employee was using that Personally Identifiable Information (PII) to compromise their identities while racking up over $115,000 in fraudulent credit card charges.  Many employers only ask for this critical information when a decision to hire is made and a background check is ready to be run.  The story supports the fact that background checks have been on the rise since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Northeast Ohio: Starbucks job applications used in identity theft

CLEVELAND — We’ve heard identity theft  cases involving dumpster dives, over the shoulder wandering eyes in the checkout line, and even toddlers targeted for their personal information.

The U.S. Attorney has an indictment against a woman that allegedly stole from the unemployed. Information was lifted from where they’re most vulnerable — job applications.

For Hyde Park Restaurants, the process of protecting employee identities starts with the application.

“What we’re looking for is past job experiences and personal references,” General Manager Jason Crawford said.

Private information, such as a birthdate or Social Security number, is obtained only after an applicant has been offered the job. Such sensitive documentation never stays on the premises.

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If you need a good example of why it is a good idea to conduct employment background checks, look no further.  A former Texas loan officer faces two charges of identity theft because he used clients’ personally identifiable information (social security numbers and dates of birth) to obtain loans.  If the employer would have conducted a criminal background check, they would have realized that this person had been convicted of burglary in 1982.  He also faced multiple charges of for DUI, theft by check and unlawfully carrying a weapon.  A credit check might also have revealed some interesting information worthy of consideration.

This kind of thing happens every day.  What I find interesting is that this didn’t take place at a larger national institution.  It happened at a small community currency exchange near Austin, Texas.  Nobody was assaulted or killed, but they were victims of identity theft, of which the affects can be felt for years.  Criminal activity does not discriminate.  In fact, those who seek to commit such crimes pray on smaller business because they know larger institutions are actually going to conduct background checks.  There is no way this company would have hired this guy if they knew about his past.  Now, they suffered financial loss, loss of reputation and are sure to find themselves involved in litigation from their customers.

It would be nice if the EEOC recognized stories such as these and spent time worrying about the victims of these crimes instead of protecting those who commit them.

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What does the BP oil spill have to do with background checks?  Nothing, at least when the spill initially happened.  Like most stories we post, the two have nothing to do with each other until it is found a proper criminal search was NOT conducted.

Investigation: Could background check have prevented alleged rape?

BP and a company used to hire workers in the gulf explain why background checks aren’t always being done on oil spill cleanup workers on tonight’s “AC360°” at 10 ET.

Pascagoula, Mississippi (CNN) — A lack of screening of oil spill cleanup workers meant a sex offender got a job, and left him free to rape a colleague according to a Mississippi county sheriff.

A CNN investigation into the incident reveals that basic background checks were not done on those hired to remove oil from the beaches in and around Pascagoula.

Jackson County Sheriff Mike Byrd told CNN he was shocked when he met with the head of BP security for the area several weeks before the alleged rape took place. He said the BP representative told him that only drug screenings, not background checks, were being conducted on the cleanup workers.

“I said, ‘You’re kidding me.’ He said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘There’s so many of them, we were told to do drug screens and that was it.’ And I said, ‘Well, that’s not good at all.’ ”

Byrd said he told the BP official that “you’re going to have every type of person coming in here looking for a job, and you’re going to have the criminal element in here, and we’re not going to know who we’re dealing with if we don’t do background checks on these people.”

“It’s sad because you got a victim now by a sex offender, and he’s in our jail. Had we have known this, he would have been arrested before the crime could have been committed,” said Byrd, who also said that if asked, his department would have done the background checks for free.

Rundy Charles Robertson, 41, who faces charges of sexual battery and failure to register as a sex offender, is in the Jackson County, Mississippi, jail with bail set at $505,000. He told police that he had consensual sex with the woman. He has not yet entered a plea.

Robertson has a criminal history dating back to 1991, according to police records. He was put on the national sex offender registry for a 1996 conviction for contributing to the delinquency of a minor in Louisiana. He is also on probation after being convicted in 2003 in Georgia for cruelty to children.

Robertson had been supervising a crew of cleanup workers, including the alleged victim. She told CNN he offered to take her home one day in June because she was not feeling well.

However, she said, when he dropped her off, he asked to use the bathroom in her motel room. When he came out, she said, he raped her.

The woman told CNN she is scared and angry that this happened.

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Join me at Staffing World 2010—the American Staffing Association’s annual convention and expo—Oct. 12–15 in Las Vegas. I will be conducting one of nearly 40 informative, staffing-specific workshops. My presentation is titled “Recruiting and Hiring Liabilities: Protecting Your Organization from the Harmful Effects of Web 2.0,” and will cover Social Networking, Background Screening and information on Diploma Mills. The workshop is on Wednesday, Oct. 13 at 4:15 p.m..  I hope to see you there! For more information, or to register, visit staffingworld.org.

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I am about to make a claim that is rather embarrassing as a background screening professional.  My childhood hero was the famous outlaw, Billy the Kid.  I grew up on horseback, I competed in cowboy style competitions at a very young age and always had the famous Billy Joel song, “The Ballad of Billy the Kid” playing in my head!  I was excited (yet still embarrassed) today when I saw that New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is considering a posthumous pardon for this western legend!

According to Wikipedia:

Henry McCarty, better known as Billy the Kid, but also known by the aliases Henry Antrim and William H. Bonney (reportedly November 23, 1859 – July 14, 1881), was a 19th century American frontier outlaw and gunman who participated in the Lincoln County War. According to legend, he killed 21 men, but he is generally accepted to have killed four. Pat Garrett shot Billy the Kid down on July 14, 1881. Garrett tracked him after the outlaw escaped from the Lincoln County jail in a famous gunbattle that left two deputies dead.

Billy’s background check would look rather interesting with all the alias names he has gone by.  His criminal record is arguable at best and his death has been debated by historians for years.  According to a recent article:

The pardon dispute is the latest in a long-running fight over whether Garrett shot the real Kid or someone else and then lied about it. Some history buffs  claim Billy the Kid didn’t die in the shootout with Garrett and landed in Texas, where he went by “Brushy Bill” Roberts and died of a heart attack at age 90 in 1950.

If I can have it my way, I’ll stick with Billy Joel’s version:

Well one cold day a posse captured Billy
And the judge said “String him up for what he did.”
And the cowboys and their kin
Like the sea, came pouring in
To watch the hanging of Billy the kid.

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Now why didn’t I see this one coming?  The Atlanta Journal Constitution published an article today about young people being denied employment after a background check reveals problems on their credit report.  What’s worse? It was their beloved parents who committed identity theft and caused the problem.  Check out this story below.

Child Identity Theft Increases- Atlanta Journal Constitution

Many face credit troubles at the hands of family members being dashed because they are unwitting victims of identity theft at the hands of someone they know, usually their parents.

It often happens when victims are too young to do anything about it, so it’s a crime that can go undetected for years.

A parent or other relative uses a child’s personal information, including Social Security number, to get a credit card, loan or other account with a clean credit record. That’s identity fraud in Georgia.

When the child enters the business and financial world as an adult, he encounters debt he knows nothing about

“They won’t be able to get a credit card. Or if the debt owed is disproportionate to their earnings, then they can’t get loans. It’s difficult to get a car,” said Michelle Jones, senior vice president of counseling for CredAbility. The Atlanta-based nonprofit, provides credit counseling and education across the Southeast.

“And when you are applying for car insurance or applying for a job, people look at your credit score. The worst case scenario … you have a young adult who is facing filing for bankruptcy on a debt that they never personally incurred,” Jones said.

The Federal Trade Commission’s figures on identity theft show Georgia ranking seventh nationwide for the highest number of complaints over the last three years. FTC breakdowns by age show about a quarter of the complaints come from 20- to 29-year-olds. But there’s no way to say how many are from parent identity theft.

Georgia Office of Consumer Affairs spokesman Bill Cloud believes cases of child identity theft have multiplied substantially in the last few years. Identity theft is a felony in Georgia.

“It’s a growing problem,” said Cloud, who said about 3 percent of identity theft victims in 2003 were children. That number increased to about 5 percent in 2006.

They do provide some advice for those who think their identity has been stolen.

• Check credit files. Minor children shouldn’t have credit files unless their information has been pilfered.
• Each credit bureau has its own procedure. For TransUnion: send an e-mail to childidtheft@transunion.com with relevant identifying information, and the company will confirm if it has a file. For Experian: visit www.experian.com/fraud or call 1-800-311-4769. For both these agencies and Equifax, follow these instructions on what to send to order a child’s report: bit.ly/aDFTi1
• Adults can order their own copies from Experian, TransUnion and Equifax through www.annualcreditreport.com , the federally-created Web site that allows free reports once a year.
• File a police report using the information from your credit reports as evidence. Victims can provide a printed copy of the Federal Trade Commission’s Universal Complaint Form to the law enforcement agency to incorporate into the police report. Find the form online: bit.ly/bN25VL
• Call all companies or collection agencies listed on your credit report that you haven’t personally opened. Ask them to send you a copy of the application and transaction records. You must send a police report with this request.
• If you have a police report listing all the fraudulent accounts, the credit bureaus must block the fraudulent accounts from your credit reports within 30 days.

Job seekers are also encouraged to conduct a personal background check on themselves at sites like TransparentMe.com

View Full Article

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Steven D. Levitt, coauthor of one of my favorite books, Freakonomics suggests that more than 50 percent of people lie on their resumes.  We obviously agree since our statistics show year after year that over 55% of applicants lie about their job and educational history.  Levitt refers to a famous W. C. Fields quote “Anything worth winning is worth cheating for.” Resume lies continue at an even higher rate in this economy, candidates have more reason to lie now, they need to work!  Falsifying your resume will get you nowhere.  Its rare to find a company these days that don’t conduct background checks on their applicants.  If you lie, you will get caught.  Employers will check your references, past employment and education, in addition to a thorough criminal background check.  What do we advise? Tell the truth!

Monster.com just published a great article, “Lying on Your Resume: What Are the Consequences?” In it they surmise:

Companies are growing increasingly savvy in ferreting out resume cheaters through more comprehensive background checks conducted both pre  and posthire. Why the latter? Subpar job performance can prompt a follow-up investigation into an employee’s past. If dishonesty is discovered, it is often grounds for termination and possibly legal action.

Click here for the rest of the article!

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Last March we reported that The Defense Finance and Accounting Service planned to terminate 67 workers after employment credit reports revealed what the agency found to be derogatory information.  After a firestorm of criticism, the agency suspend their credit-related firings.

Well, we’ve just learned that Ohio congressman Dennis Kucinich has called for an investigation into the firings.  According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, “The politicians said the recession and housing crisis has affected some of the workers, and they were unfairly targeted. They said 85 percent of the workers affected were black. Locally, about 35 workers have been fired or suspended.”

This topic actually served as an impetus for us to publish a white paper on the value of credit reports to human resource professional.  Download “Credit Reports and the Hiring Process: The Value (And Risk) to HR Professionals”.

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